ManiaMuse

It's about time the South and Southeast got it worse than us. A rainy day here but nothing particularly out of the ordinary.

NEST has been bringing the heating on more often over the last couple of weeks. It is relatively well trained so knows my schedule so brings the heating on just before I get up for a bit before I go to work and then is usually pre-heating just as I get back home from work. Personally I have never understood 'I don't switch on my heating until November/until it is in the single digits' crowd.. It is not just the cold in Autumn/Winter, it is also the damp air from our rubbish weather so why purposely live in uncomfortable conditions if you have the option of switching on heating? On the other hand, I do remember my grandma used to have her heating set ridiculously high in the winter which seemed a bit wasteful.

So after the notably wet 7 months from from August 2019 to February 2020, could we finally be in for a sustained period of dry weather and a decent summer that is more than just a couple of brief heatwaves followed by grey skies and rain? Sorry I've probably just cursed it for daring to believe...

April showers out of nowhere today, forecast said dry all day. At least things dry up quickly after the rain compared to the middle of winter now that the sun is stronger.

This is the point where you learn that mudguards are your best friend if you want to cycle commute regularly in the UK's awful weather...

Well the pharma companies know that it is going to be a lucrative prize for whoever can get the first vaccine approved for the market.

There was a very nasty cough which went around my workplace before Christmas and over New year. A significant proportion of people at my workplace and to get it. The demographic of my work is very heavily skewed to young people in their twenties and a lot of then caught it. My immune system is normally pretty good but I ended up with a persistent cough which took several weeks to fully shake off. I might have had a mild fever for a day or so but it definitely wasn't flu and seemed different to the usual colds and sniffles that go around in winter as well.

One of the most sensible things posted in this thread. If you are glued to 'BREAKING - X MORE CASES IN COUNTRY Y' type news reports as will inevitably be re-posted in thread or on Twitter etc like then you are undoubtedly not doing your mental health any favours. It also becomes very circular - you feel worried about the situation so you feel compelled to read more news stories about it which makes you even more worried and so you have to consume even more news about it etc... As serious as it is, if you are worried about it I suggest taking a break from the news for a while. Go for a walk or a bike ride or pass some time doing one of you hobbies or something. Put restrictions on yourself on how long or what time of day you update yourself with the news. To a certain extent what is going to happen is going to happen and there isn't that much that individuals can do about it (within reason obviously, if you feel ill and are coughing then it is probably a good idea to avoid intentionally spreading it around if you can).

I wouldn't imagine that starving, conscripted North Korean soldiers are particularly fit and healthy...

Nice to have a day that wasn't windy for a change.

It's quite nice to see the sun a bit today and it does feel stronger now when it is out. However the constant wind is driving me insane. Looks like we are about to have a 4th weekend in a row of horrible weather as well.

God thihs incessant wind is driving me crazy.

I'm greedy and want a few years...

I always wonder what those people actually do when it does snow.

Daffodil heads just starting to emerge in my garden. Wish this wind and rain would bugger off though.

I really want a drought this year. It's just been so wet for the last 6 months, please can we just have some dry weather?

I've always wondered what the Netweather snow freaks actually do when it snows... What I hate most of all about winter is the darkness. Really in the UK it is unbearably dark from mid October to mid March, that is nearly half the year! Then Summer inevitably flies by with disappointing whether and we are back into darkness yet again.

Really hoping for an exceptionally dry spell this Spring/Summer. Don't care about the temperatures, just want it to be dry for a while. Ever since the torrential rains of late July/August last year it has just been damp all the time.

Sun out in Stockport now Schizophrenic weather.

Without turning this into an aviation thread, looks like that that TUI 787 is coming in for a third attempt at Manchester. Also spotted two Ryanair jets intended for Birmingham and East Midlands which seem to be diverting to Manchester. Must be a fun day to be working in ATC...

They are still coming over my house to Manchester although one I just saw on the webcam that one did a go around a few minutes ago. Good job they cancelled a lot of flights from the London airports. I think the nearest suitable alternate airport from the London airports given the weather conditions would have been Manchester which has runways more aligned NE/SW but obviously the conditions here are still borderline. No way Manchester could have dealt with hundreds of diversions.

I would call the games off. There will likely be travel disruption and I bet you will end up with teams being short of players anyway because they can't get there anyway. Besides, do you really want kids playing and parents standing around spectating in 50mph+ gusts with possibly flying debris from trees/buildings. And depending on the orientation of the pitches you might end up seeing goals scored like this...not exactly fun conditions for playing football!

They are talking about groundspeed which is not the same as airspeed. Airspeed is relative to the speed of the wind. The speed of sound depends on airspeed. With a 200mph+ tailwind from the Jetstream a commercial airliner can easily be traveling at 750-800mph groundspeed but still only Mach 0.85 airspeed and not breaking the speed of sound. Same in reverse with a headwind.

Hang in there, it really becomes noticeable through February especially as it starts to become light when leaving work. Gained an hour in the evenings and half an hour in the mornings here now. We gain nearly two hours through February alone so have that to look forward to.

My daffodils are probably a couple of weeks away from flowering still. But it's nice to see the buds starting to appear on the trees. Really hoping for a warm and dry Spring for a change, cannot be doing with another Cold March.